Trudy Gold
Germany and Jewish Identity 1750’s – 1933, Part 3

Trudy Gold Germany and Jewish Identity 1750’s-1933, Part 3

- Yes, we passed the hour. So today, German Jewish identity, 1950s to 1933. Welcome back, everybody, another week. We are trotting towards Rosh Hashanah, and thank you for joining us. Almost the end of this… Thanks, Trudy, over to you.

• Okay, thank you very much, Wendy, and welcome everyone. And as I thought we were mo… As we are moving towards Rosh Hashanah, I think it’s so important to talk about identity, and there was no place where it was more acute than in Germany. If you remember that quote of Heine’s, “The two ethical nations, "the Jews and the Germans, "will create a new Jerusalem.” But then, of course, later on, he changes his mind. I just want to give you a notion, because I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone the other day about population figures, and I think it’s quite important that you understand just how small the Jewish community was in Berlin and in Germany. And in a way, I suppose that’s what’s going to make the success story so extraordinary because on one level, and I’m sticking my neck out here, but I do think that the coming together of the Jew and the German produced a renaissance.

In fact, Grunfeld said, “If it hadn’t ended so badly, "we would study it with the same awe "that we studied the Italian Renaissance,” because they exploded into so many different areas. It was almost, as I’ve said to you before, that modernity was made for the Jews, and it was particularly acute in Germany, which is unified late and then catapults itself, under the auspices of Bismarck, into the modern world. But going back, I mean, the first Jew to settle in Berlin in the modern period was actually Israel Aaron, who was a court Jew who was given special privileges by the ruler. And of course, in 1671, 50 Viennese Jews, who’d been expelled from Vienna, important merchants, were invited in because this is the time of the building up of the economic base of Prussia. And the first synagogue was established in 1714. By 1700, there were 1,000 Jews in Berlin. By the 1760s, when Moses Mendelssohn was at his height, there were 2,000 Jews. By 1848, there were only 9,500 Jews. By 1900, and I’ll be getting onto this tomorrow, there were 110,000 Jews in Berlin, which was five percent of the population. Now, overall, in 1871, there were half a million Jews in the whole of Germany. By 1914, on the eve of the First World War, the number had gone up to 615,000. So if they’re five percent of the population of the capital city, they’re only one percent of the total of people in Germany.

And don’t forget that Germany in the north is Lutheran, Protestant in the main, and in the south, it’s Catholic. Germany, by the way, in 1900, have 56 million people. So that’s just to slot it in because I think it’s important that you understand what a small minority the Jews were, but they are the only non-Christian minority. Important also to remember, I mean, we live in the West in such a multicultural life in the cities, that we forget that it’s only the 20th century, in fact, the second half of the 20th century, that sees the great migration of peoples from the old empires. So if… The coming to this country of Muslims. Up until that period, the only Muslims who would be there would be a few traders or ambassadors.

So it’s not yet the kind of homogenous society that we see today. It’s very much a Christian world, and of course that breaks with the Enlightenment. And I think we’ve already spent quite a lot of time looking at the dilemma that so many Jews faced. The tragedy was, in Germany, and I said this to you yesterday, the rights were given mainly through the French. Then of course, Prussia actually emancipated the Jews themselves in 1812. But after 1815, many of the rights awarded to Jews were taken away. So just imagine, you’ve had this small group of intellectual Jews, wealthy Jews, mixing at the high level of German society, falling in love with the arts, the culture, and then it’s taken away. What it leads to is a lot of conversions. But I’m going to go back just for a short while to Heinrich Heine because Heinrich Heine, in many ways the prophet of his generation. And just to recap on Heine, why is he so central?

He’s central to us because he’s such a fascinating character in the whole notion of Jewish identity. But please, don’t forget that not only did he write the most profound poems and plays, his lyrics have been set to music by the majority of the great musicians of the time. And I don’t think I emphasised enough just what an important intellectual figure he was. When he finally left Germany for Paris in 1831, he really was at the centre of a salon where all the intellectuals, the musicians, the artists, the important writers, socialist ideas, they all fermented around the figure of Heine. And even characters… He didn’t like men Mendelssohn at all, by the way. In his work, “Deutschland,” this is, of course, I’m talking about Felix Mendelssohn, he mocks his grandson…. He mocks the great Moses Mendelssohn’s grandson. He says this, “Moses Mendelssohn’s grandson has ventured "so far into Christianity "that he is a .” In a letter to another Jew, Ferdinand Lassalle, who I’ll be talking about later, “I cannot believe that this man has put his great talent "at the service of that religion. "He has squandered his gifts on the church.”

And it’s fascinating because, of course, Heine converted in 1824. We discussed that last time. Why did he convert? He converted because, as he said in his letter, “Baptism is the passport to European civilization.” However, it was never a sincere baptism. And later on, towards the end of his life, particularly when he is inured in, what he called, his mattress grave, where he’s still a prolific writer, it’s there that he really comes to terms with his Jewishness. He writes… Of course, I talked about the Rabbi, Von Bacherach, that he’d written stories, Jewish stories, but he also wrote about Yehuda Halevi. Yehuda Halevi was a fascinating character. His dates were 1075 to 1141. He was a poet. Of course, he’s living in Muslim Spain in the Golden Age, that great golden age of Spanish-Jewish culture under Islam, it’s very important. He was a very important physician, he was probably the court physician.

He was a poet, he was a philosopher. Now this is what interested Heine about him. He was soaked in Jewish scholarship, but he also studied the Greek sciences and Greek philosophy. He was also an active participant in Jewish communal life. And his prose, he wrote his prose in Arabic and he wrote his poetry in Hebrew. He wrote much on the pleasure of life. His poetry, those of you who are interested in this period, is very, very seductive. It really gives you an ocean of southern Spain, that incredible… You can almost smell the orange blossom while you are listening to that poetry. But it’s also full of religious verse. He was a man, who in Islamic Spain, in mediaeval times, did walk the world, and it’s interesting that Heine chose to write about him. Now, having said all of that, what happens to him in the end is that he goes to… Halevi goes to Israel, and he did believe that only in Israel could he claim fulfilment. So he writes this, and then we have another absolutely contrary response from the doubly alienated Heine. I’ve mentioned his uncle, Solomon, one of the richest men in Germany, who’s a banker, and he was also a big philanthropist.

And he paid for the opening… He paid for a Jewish hospital in Hamburg. And this is what Heine wrote about it, he wrote a nasty little verse. “A hospital for sick and needy Jews, "for poor humans who were tripling miserable "with three great sicknesses: "Poverty, pain and Jewishness. "The last is the worst. "Thousands of years of a family disease.” So we also know that he had quite a close relationship with Heine… With Karl Marx, when Karl Marx was in Paris. Karl Marx, the wanderer. And they were related to each other. And Karl Marx tried so hard to convert him to socialism. He was in some ways a liberal kind of socialist, but he was not an ideologue. That would not have suited the flexible Heine. And Marx actually wrote, and Marx hardly ever wrote anything pleasant about anyone, he actually said, “Leaving Paris, "the saddest thing of all is my parting with Heine.”

Gustav Mahler, later on in Vienna, and we will be talking about Jewish identity in Vienna, hopefully this side of Rosh Hashanah, if not afterwards, he wrote this… Also, these are cute individuals with their wonderful brains who fall in love with the culture of the world they come to. He said “A Jew is like a swimmer with a short arm. "He has to swim twice as hard "to reach the shore.” But there was a period in Heine’s life, which I’ve already mentioned to you, when after the he… He becomes involved in a very important society. A society for the spread of culture and science amongst the Jews. It’s set up in Berlin by four remarkable young men, and this is the society that Heine joins and he teaches there for them. Now, who were these characters and what was it about? It was a few weeks after the infamous Hep-Hep Riots, which are there… Thank you, Judy. And there, of course, you have that wonderful painting of Heine by Oppenheim, which I showed you last week. And there, you see Heine. So let’s keep that on the stage, I think, a little. And then, please, can we go on the main brain behind the centre? And that is Leopold Zunz. Leopold Zunz, please, can we see?

This is also a painting by Oppenheim. I’m afraid it’s not too clear, but that was the best that I could get for you from the net. So who came together? Eduard Gans, Leopold Zunz, and Moses Moser, and a man called Michael Bier, who was the younger brother of someone who will be very well known to you, and I know that Patrick’s already spoken about him, Mayer Bier. So they come together and they have an ambition, it’s quite simple. They’re going to try and bring Jews into the orbit of German culture and to reinforce Jewish identity, listen to this, “By bridging the Gulf between secular "and religious education.” Here we come to the nub of it, which we have never really successfully solved. Is it possible to be a Jew at home and a man in society?

Remember, this is way before Zionism. The term is not invented until 1891. And the sentiments really don’t begin until the 1850s, 1860s, and I’m going to talk about that later today. So here, you have four very clever young men, later to be joined by perhaps the cleverest of them all, Heinrich Heine, to try and work out Jewish identity. Heine, of course, is visiting all the salons. Moses Moser was a very wealthy banker. They were part of that very rarefied, wealthy, intellectual life in Berlin. And we’ve already looked at some of the tragedies of the women who ran the salons, who agonised over their Jewishness. Remember Heine’s comment on Henrietta Hertz, who converted, of course, who wore a cross around her neck the length of her nose? So what… In a way, they’re doing exactly what Moses Mendelssohn did. They’re looking at the pinnacle of Western civilization and comparing it with the whole of Israel. I had an email from one of our group, keep those coming, some of them are so very interesting, and she was reminded of the words of Zalman of Liadi, of course, who created Chabad.

If you remember, when Napoleon was conquering Russia, he’d already issued the… He’d already… The Grand Sanhedrin had happened and the whole dream of Jewish emancipation. And Zalman of Liadi went off with the Russian army. He wrote a letter to another rabbi where he said, “I would rather…” I’m paraphrasing, and we’ll spend more time on it when we turn to Eastern Europe, “I would rather my people suffer, "and may even die, under the czars "because Napoleon will be the end "of the Jewish people.” This is encapsulating now the crisis of modernity. Remember Chinese, the configuration of two figures for crisis? One is danger, one is opportunity. You can have the world, but what do you do with that 1,900 year Jewish tradition of the diaspora? And what do you do with the whole of Jewish history behind you? There’s no science of Jewish history.

Particularly Zunz, he’s trying to make the study of Judaism and the study of Jewish history into a science, along with all the other subjects that are going to be studied at university. He wants those acculturated Jews to feel comfortable in their own skins about their Jewishness and to have pride in their Jewishness. Later on, the Zionists are going to do exactly the same. There is an amazing poem by Bialik after a terrible pogrom in Kishinev, where he says, “You were once the scions of the lions, "you were the seed of the saints, "you are the heroes of the Maccabees. "That is your legacy, "that is your history.” And of course, you’ve got this really interesting dilemma because who is the hero of the Jew in the diaspora? It’s got to be the scholar, the pallid scholar who studies this Talmud, who studies for the love of God. And to a large extent, you can study maths, you can study astronomy, because they help with your studies. But anything outside, how much is it allowed? And it’s still an issue within ultra-orthodox communities. What may a Jew study?

So what Zunz does, and he writes this very in… I think he writes this very, very interesting pamphlet where he talks about what a Jew should study. I should mention that he had a fascinating life. He was born in Hamburg, he was brilliant. His father was a great Talmud scholar, and he taught him till he was eight. And then, tragically, the father died, and his widowed mother had to send him to a school for poor Jews, which was very… It was a terrible condition. Until a brilliant young educator turned up and really revolutionised the school. His name was Samuel Maier Ehrenberg.

And what he tried to do, he tried to… In this school, he tried to adapt the Jew to Western civilization and to preserve Judaism as a religion. And this was the background. He later became a tutor. He later was ordained. He began to write some very, very important books. Books of sermons. He preached at Reform Temples, I haven’t yet discussed with you Reform Judaism, but he didn’t really have much truck with Reform. He wanted more of an Enlightenment rather than to actually reform Jewish… He didn’t want to reform the essence of Judaism, but his lectures become very, very important, and his books even more so. He goes to England, he meets up with George Eliot, who of course wrote “Daniel Deronda.” He studies at the Bodleian.

And of course, “Daniel Deronda,” those of you who haven’t read it, you’re in for the most incredible treat. And his whole life, he tried to walk the tightrope and to create, if you like, a science of Judaism. He went to secular university. You see, this is the point about him. He had a strong Talmudic education, and then he went to a secular university. He studied philosophy, he studied history. So he is a man who walked both worlds. And in more enlightened orthodox circles, there is no problem with a western education, a secular education, but you must have a solid Jewish education as well. So let’s have a look at what he came up with. Remember, this is the paper that these four young Jews, and later, Heine, became involved in. Now, they actually stated their main purpose was to make Jews emerging from the ghettos more acceptable to their neighbours by eliminating external differences.

You see, this is one of the problems. Moses Mendelssohn had wanted to teach the Jews in the ghetto German, stop them teaching “that terrible language,” as he thought. So they write down the improvements that they think is needed. “The whole notion of "chosenness” is a problem. “We have to explain it carefully. "We must get rid of the pride in chosenness. "We must get rid of superstition "within the religion.” It’s fascinating because I would suggest to you there is superstition in every religion. I remember as… I don’t remember, but I have it. When I was a baby, one of my great aunts pinned on my vest a , which is an amulet, it was the star of David, with a little red ribbon to ward off the evil eye, and I wonder how many of you listening today have a similar experience. Also, he wanted people to become more enlightened and more tolerant. And also he was worried that the Jewish community had neglected manual labour in favour of aesthetic idleness. Now, this is a problem because this is… Even the great Leopold Zunz is making this as an accusation.

The truth was, if you go back in the diaspora, go back to the land of Israel. In the land of Israel, Jews would’ve fulfilled every niche in the economy. What happened to them in the diaspora? It’s actually the outside view of the Jew. The Christian Church forbade… If you think about the stranglehold of the Catholic Church, and later on in the world of Protestantism, if you wanted to be a tradesperson, you had to belong to a Christian guild. Jews had to move into the niche in the economy where there was a place. That’s what made them the moneylenders and traders of Europe, and also the peddlers. Don’t forget, the period I’m talking about, 40% of the Jews of Eastern Europe are living in dire poverty, but they are traders and peddlers. They are not working the land because they were never allowed to.

And even Zunz talks about this, so it’s fascinating. And he said, “The literal observance of festivals "without really… "Of all your ceremonies "without really understanding it.” He spoke out against huckstering, he spoke out against greed, also contempt for sciences. And also, according… Now, remember, this is his paper, “All leading to the persistent delusion, "contrary to law, "that it is permissible to cheat non-Jews.” He said, “We must get rid of the… "There are certain things in Judaism which are harmful. "We must really take away "the tyrannical part of the rabbis.” He was actually ordained as a rabbi by a Hungarian reformer. “We must get rid of the fanaticism of our people. "We must stop wasting arms on idlers. "And we produce very, very bad schools, "or none at all.” He’s now screamed… Remember he went to a bad school that was only then cleaned up. He said, “Our children are too effeminate.” This is going to be an accusation that many 19th century philosophers, both Jew and non-Jew, throw at the Jews. “You are not warriors.”

Ironically, this becomes an incredibly strong motif in Zionism. The hammer… If you think about the… if you think about Heine and the hammer of Thor, well, what did the Zionist say, particularly the revisionist? “The sword of Bar-Kochba will rise again.” There was that great tradition in the Jews, and you can make the case that after the destruction of the second temple and the centres of Talmudic learning in Palestine, and, of course, in Babylon, you can make the case that the rabbis deliberately expunged these ideas because it led to revolt, which led to destruction. But this is one of the problems, according to Zunz, that our children are seen to be effeminate, our parental example is not good enough. There’s too much… Too many of the Talmudic students are uncouth. Later on, Jabotinsky wrote a fascinating article. He wanted , that’s what a Jew must have. “There’s faulty or bad instruction in schools. "There’s no instruction "in languages or sciences, only Talmud. "Not enough emphasis on the prophets. "All the teachers are badly paid, "so they’re substandard. "There is discrimination against women.” This is interesting, isn’t it? It’s now… He’s writing this in 1819. He and his colleagues are already thinking about the role of women.

“And also, if you look at the image "of the Jew in Christian society, "how do the Christians see us? "They’re traders, petty commerce, "peddling, no artisans, "shunning physical labour, "shunning farming, neglect of self, "no physical activity.” So what we’re going to do is we’re going to turn this around. We are going to set up a centre for the study of the science of Judaism. We will… They set up a research institute in Berlin, a library, an archive. They established a free school in Berlin where they tried to educate. And this is where Heine taught Jewish youth to walk the line, to be proud Jews, to understand their heritage, and also to understand their history. This is something else that Zunz was very, very, very strong on. Just as the non-Jewish world is beginning to periodize history, what we must do is the same. We must actually study Jewish history. He himself had studied Hebrew manuscripts at the Bodleian, and of course later on you’re going to have Graetz, the great Heinrich Graetz, who is going to begin… There’s already one man, , but what’s going to happen with Graetz is really going to periodize Jewish history.

Let us tell the story of the Jews. I remember when I graduated, there was nowhe… There was nowhere in England you could study Jewish history. Martin Gilbert was just beginning at Oxford. But a very close friend of mine, who was Yeshiva educated, he finished up at Oxford, doing his PhD, and he was desperate to study Jewish history, and he had a Jewish ch… And he had a Jewish supervisor, but he said, “No, no, no.” This was a German Jew who became an important academic at Oxford. He said, “No, no, no, no, not Jewish history.” And it was only really the work of the extraordinary Martin Gilbert… And I remember, when we first started our centre in the late 18… In the late 1970s, early 1980s, we brought over from the Hebrew University. So we’ve come a long way in the past 40 years.

But it’s important to remember these are the dilemmas that they’re talking about. Let’s walk the tightrope. And if you think what Wendy’s done with Lockdown University, the majority of you are incredibly well educated. And I’ve said this to you, I was far better secularly educated than I was Jewishly educated. And I know there are people here who do know a lot, so I’m not making any generalisations. Suffice to say, certainly in England, I think the majority of Jews are better secularly educated than they are Jewishly educated. So anyway, he is very, very important. He writes a biography of and he sets down the modern principles of historic and literary research. He said, “I believe in the regenerative power "of , "while weaker souls desert it "and found preferment by baptism.” Now, because what happens, unfortunately… He wants an academic approach to Jewish texts. So what happens, unfortunately… Can we go on from Zunz? Here you have Moses Moser. Moses Moses… No sorry, Eduard Gans, sorry. You see, Eduard Gans, he was an interesting fellow. He was one of the characters who was with Zunz at the start. He came from a very Jewish uni… A very, very wealthy Jewish banking family.

He studied law at Berlin University, and then at Gottingen and Heidelberg. He attended Hegel’s lectures. Hegel, the great German Jewish philosopher… German gentile philosopher, sorry, who’s going to be so important. He took his PhD in 1820, not at Berlin because Jews couldn’t at that stage. Then he wanted desperately to become a lecturer at Berlin University. And in 1825, he converted to the evangelical church. And the following year, he does become a professor. He was very important in the school of jurisprudence. But it’s fascinating that Heine called him “The Apostate.” So here’s a man who gave into the… You see, why did Heine convert? He wanted that chair at Dusseldorf University. He never got it. So you see the soul agony. Look how he’s dressed. He’s dressed like a wealthy man of Berlin. He was a figure of the Enlightenment. And now, can we come to Moses Moser? Now, Moses Moser was the other of the trio. He was a banker. He later became an employee in the firm of Moses Friedlander, who was the son of David Friedlander, one of Moses Mendelssohn’s greatest disciples, and he became a partner. He went to… He studied philosophy at the university.

Although he had had no formal secular education, he’d had a Jewish education. He went to the university and studied there, where he met other secular Jewish intellectuals. And he became a very, very close friend of Heine. He never, ever converted. He was the one who held the path. Heine adored him and he called him, “He is the living Nathan The Wise.” So what I’ve tried to do is to give you a notion of the kind of agony that young Jewish intellectuals were going through at this particular period, and it’s important also to understand the backdrop, because what is the backdrop of this period? Well, 1815, the Congress of Vienna, as I’ve already mentioned, it cleans Germany up. The two most important states are now Prussia in the north, Bavaria in the south. There was a dream though emerging at the universities of the beginnings, the stirrings, of German nationalism. I’ve already mentioned Fichte to you, his paeon to German nationalism. Between 1815 and 1848, there’s a huge clash in the German city states. Germany is beginning to modernise. But in that period of modernization, what force will succeed? Remember, you are dealing with autocratic despots. 36 city states all ruled by an autocrat.

Now, they might be trying to create a modern economy, but they are not giving freedoms to the people. Obviously not, because if you start giving freedoms, people want rights, but how do you create a modern economy without education? So there’s going to be huge tussle between 1815 and it’s all going to culminate in 1848. It begins in Frankfurt. There’s going to be 52 revolutions throughout Europe, so you’re seeing a time of incredible change. If you look at immi… Those of you who are interested in immigration patterns, if you look at immigration patterns from 1815 to 1871 into America, you’ll see an awful lot of Germans go at this period. I’m not talking about Jews now, I’m talking about Germans. It’s then, what’s going to happen, of course, after the 1848 revolutions, they’re all going to fail.

But you can’t stop the march of progress. And what is finally going to happen in Germany is that Prussia, the most militaristic, the strongest, the most powerful of the German states, is going to take on the whole mantle of Germany because the emperor takes on, with some reluctance, one of the most extraordinary characters of the 19th century, Prince Otto Von Bismarck. And it’s going to be Otto Von Bismarck, more about him tomorrow… It’s going to be Bismarck who is going to, through three wars, war with Austria, war with Denmark, and war with France, unify Germany into a nation. And it’s only going to be under Bismarck that Jews are fully emancipated throughout the whole of Germany. Germany becomes one nation. You still have all the separate lender, but it’s ruled now, from Prussia, under… It is now Germany. And it is ruled really for 20 years by the extraordinary Bismarck, who, by the way, was a very, very close friend of Disraeli. And if you want a wonderful book, read “The History of Berlin” by Alexander Richie. That’s a wonderful book to give you a background to all of this. And, of course, Bismarck is going to have at his side the Jewish banker, Gerson Bleichröder.

But before I get to that, I want to look… And you’ve got to remember, I’m making choices here. We’re not looking at a large Jewish population, but I had to make choices as to which individuals of Jewish birth that I would bring to the fore to give you a notion of the various issues of Jewish identity. So we looked at this dream of creating an organisation to promote Jewish history and culture. What on earth is Wendy doing now, if you think about it? And at the same… But tragically then, the lure of the outside world. It was a very, very different place. 1819, 200 year… Just think about it. Just over 200 years ago, the dream of keeping the Jews on the path. Now, what is a Jew? Is religion a private affair? Are we, after 1871, citizens of the countries in which we live of the Jewish religion in Germany? What are we?

Certainly, this isn’t going to be the story in the Russian Empire yet. It was never really the story in the Russian Empire. So what is a Jew? The Jews of Eastern Europe in the main, when they turn to enlightenment, they don’t turn to this kind of enlightenment. What’s happening in Germany is the real love affair with German culture. And it’s going to hit in every area, as I’ve said before. And when I talk about the Jews on the sharp edge of modernity, particularly after Bismarck, it is absolutely extraordinary. I mean, if you think about the development of the hotel chains, the development of newspapers. Reuters, he was a Jew. I’ll be talking about him tomorrow. If you talk about practically every area of modern business. The three most important private banks, even the mergers of the public banks. If you then talk about revolutionary movements, disproportionate number of Jews at the centre of that. If you look at journalism, if you look at music, if you look at the new sciences, out of all proportion to their numbers… By 1900, 50% of the doctors in Berlin were Jews, 50% of the lawyers.

Now, one thing I am going to stress here, they didn’t have power. Many of them would’ve had influence, but power… I think the Shoah has shown us, once and for all, that… Look, for me, the Shoah is the greatest example of powerlessness in modern history. Power is an army, power is a government. So Jews might consider they have influence in the diaspora, but is it power? And I want you to think about that because some of the characters that, of course, we will talk about and study, their foreign ministers, Jews, Einstein, who was Time Magazine’s Man of The Century, a German Jew, Paul Erlich, who came up with Salvarsan, I can go on and on. And those of you who love art, most of the art dealers who put modern art before the public were Jewish. They’re outside the tradition. Think modern music, think modern… Think modern film. I mean, David Pima’s already talked about Fritz Lang. Who do you think is pioneering modern cinema? Now, most of these characters have left their Judaism far behind, but they are outsiders, and that’s the point I’m making. These Jews who… These people of Jewish birth who didn’t really rest anywhere. And then the question is, it doesn’t matter until I’m blue in the face, I can decide that I’m English, it also depends on how the outside world sees me. But I must stress something else, there was liberal opinion in Germany.

Now, by 1920, intermarriage in Germany was running at 45%. That means there are liberal families who you are marrying into. So let’s be careful. We couldn’t… In Amos Elon’s brilliant book, “The Pity of it All,” you see we know what happened. And it’s terribly difficult, when you’re teaching it, not to teach it in a certain way, and to look at the characters and their life efforts and say, “Who was right and who was wrong?” Maybe as the Chinese would say, it’s still too early to judge. I’m now going to come onto another fascinating man. A man called Moses Hess. Many of you will know of Moses Hess. That’s a gorgeous painting of him. His dates are 1812 to 1875. Now, when he… He was buried in Cologne. On his tombstone, “Here lies the founding father "of German social democracy,” AKA communism. Later on, in 1962, he is reinterred at Kibbutz Degania, where he lies alongside the founding fathers of Zionism. And he played a absolutely decisive role in the creation of these two extraordinary ideologies, communism and Zionism. So he was born in Bonn. One grandfather was David Hess, chief rabbi of Mannheim. And the other grandfather, Moses , was rabbi in Bockenheim.

So he comes from a very, very strong rabbinic tradition. And his family were amongst those who were freed by the French wars. The ghetto walls are thrown open, remember. Ghettos were locked at night. The walls are now open, you can be emancipated. And of course, after the French defeat, the Rhineland was annexed to what became known as New Prussia, and restrictions were again reimposed. So what happens? With his family, they’re very pious. They do not take the path to conversion. They’re very strongly attached to Judaism. So his father moved to Cologne where he established a sugar refinery, his wife died, and young Moses was taught by his grandfather. His grandfather, the rabbi. Now, he… So he had a very solid… This is what’s interesting about Hess, because he had a solid knowledge of Torah, Talmud, and the prophets. He studied the mediaeval commentaries, and later on, particularly the prophets are going to have a very profound effect on him.

Though, we don’t know much about this. Shlomo Avineri has written a good book on Hess, by the way. He’s being rediscovered but there are gaps in our knowledge of him. We know that his father, his very pious father, reluctantly allowed him to attend Bonn University. When he is at Bonn University, he falls under the spell of the romanticism and nationalism which is sweeping through all the universities, and he becomes enamoured of the German intelligentsia. He also begins to see money making, his father… He didn’t want to go into his father’s business. He said it was a bourgeois endeavour, that money is very, very is… Money is tainted. Funnily, he went off on his father’s money to see London, Amsterdam, and Paris. He’s very much attracted to the thought of Hegel.

Now, Hegel, I don’t know if there are many philosophers on board today, Hegel is one of the most complicated of the philosophers. I think from our purposes, what is important to understand is his glorification of the state. He went as far as to say “The state is the exist… "Is the actual, existing, realised moral law. "All good resides in the state. "All spiritual reality possessed "by a human being is possessed "through the state. "The state is the divine idea "as it exists on earth.” This idea is developed even more in his philosophy of law. You see how important this is going to be in Germany? The notion of the idealisation of the state. It also fits in with all the romanticism of Germany at the moment. Now, he also believed that the duty of every citizen is to uphold… Is upholding his individuality, as long as it does not in any way upset the state. Now, Hess, in 1837, he writes his first book, “The Sacred History of Mankind "by a Young Disciple of Spinoza.” Now, that should give us a clue. This is one of the rambling tomes that were so prevalent amongst young intellectuals. Who was Spinoza? “Spinoza was the Jew,” to quote Isaac Deutscher, “who crossed… "He went beyond Judaism,” Spinoza, later of course, excommunicated by the Muhammad in Amsterdam, a very important philosopher, but moved beyond the fringes of Judaism. And this is what Hess is saying in this. “I have moved beyond Christ… "I have moved beyond Judaism.”

And I think it’s interesting because he… It also shows that he had become a fully fledged socialist. And not only that, he had met a young man called Karl Marx, who he really believed was extraordinary. He believed that Karl Marx had the whole width and breadth and brain to change the world. He, in fact… He becomes a collaborator with Marx. You can go back, please. I think we… We go back to Hess for a while. He collaborates with Marx… He works with Marx on the first draught of the Communist Manifesto, but they quarrel. Marx calls him “Rabbi Moses” because he believed in social justice. He was worried about Marx’s very kind of ideological base, and he was a very human character, Hess. His father was supporting him through most of this. In 1848, all these young radicals had to get out of Germany. Why? Because of the revolution. So what does he do? He flees to Paris, and then to Marseille, where he opens up a brush shop. He later settles in Paris and in Marseille… He actually marries, well, a woman of the streets, he marries a prostitute, to redress the social balance. I mean, I think that’s when his father decided he wasn’t going to support him anymore.

But from exile, he condemns Prussian chauvinism. He’s very much a figure of the revolution. In 1856, something occurs. He actually writes a poem, which is rejected because he’s a Jew, and that re… This is from another socialist. And that absolutely floors him. And then, in 1862, he writes a book called “Rome and Jerusalem.” Herzl actually said that “if I ha…” Herzl said this in 1901, “Everything we have tried already, "he wrote here.” Because what Hess does is he… Again, Hess is the double outsider. What he does is this: In his book, “Rome and Jerusalem,” which it takes the form of 12 letters to a lady, which is a conventional writing style of the period, remember this man is a socialist, he’s an important agitator, he’d had to flee Germany for his life, he finished up in Paris, he’s friendly with Lassalle, he sees Heine in the latter part of Heine’s life, he’s part of that world. He did identify Jewry with capitalism, but he says this. He says, “The Germans hate the Jews, "not because of their peculiar religion "but because of their peculiar noses. "You cannot straighten your crinkly hair "and make it straight.” And actually, he admires the Jews of the East. He says, “After 20 years of estrangement, "I have come back to my people.” So ironically, he goes back…

By the way, he does go back to Germany under an amnesty. His story does reveal the agony of a person of Jewish birth struggling with internationalism. And at the same time, the double outsider, outsider from Judaism, outsider now from Germany in Paris, and now back to Germany. And he began to believe, looking at the rise of nationalism in Germany, that the only real solution for the Jews should be a national movement, as you were witnessing, for example, in Italy with Mazzini. So this is what he says. He says, “The modern, liberated, emancipated Jew is "to be despised "because he is disloyal to his fellow Jews. "Denial of nationality forfeits respect. "Where I do well, that is my country. "The modern Jew is despicable "for deserting his race "because it is oppressed, "and the banner of the Enlightenment will not save you.” And he goes on to say that German Jews just do not get this because they are patriotic. They are as patriotic as any Teuton. And he said, “races do exist "and Jews will never be seen as German.” And he says this, “The liberal Jews of Germany will "one day suffer a cataclysm "the extent of which they cannot begin to conceive. "Reform Judaism ignores the fact "that Jews are a nation.” And what he dreams of is of a Jewish socialist commonwealth.

He never repudiates his socialism. He synthesises it with Jewish nationalism. And he says the Jewish proletariat should be rooted within the framework of Jewish national society. So Moses Hess… Moses Hess is very forward thinking. And you see, with the hindsight of history, he could well be on the right track. But at the time, nobody took him seriously. In fact, the leading German Jewish newspaper said that Hess was a failed socialist, and he got hold of a new idea and he would fail at that too. Now, he travelled a long way. He continued… By the way, both he and Marx, how did they earn a living? They earned a living as writers, mainly journalists for American newspapers. He wrote for the… He wrote for an American newspaper in Chicago. The folks back in… The Germans who had gone to America, the folks back home, they wanted to know what was going on. Karl Marx, he wrote for German newspapers. So they earned their living as journalists. It’s interesting, by 1900, over 30% of the liberal journalists in Germany were Jewish. It’s interesting. He died in Paris and it was his illiterate wife who preserved all his papers. I just thought I wanted to bring him into the story because I find him an absolutely fascinating character. He try… And of course… And I find him far more sympathetic to his colleague. And yes, you can look at his picture now, Judy, Karl Marx, who is… The enemies called him “The Red Rabbi.” Now I am not going to go into the details of Karl Marx’s biography, I’ve done that in the past, and there are so many books on Karl Marx.

What I’m interested in is his Jewishness and how he dealt with it, because this is very, very problematic. He was born in 1818, he died in 1883. He was… No sorry, he was born in 1808, I’ve got that wrong. I’ve just given you Wagner’s dates. He was born… Again, the grandson of rabbis on both sides. His father was one of those Jews, I mentioned him last week, who changed his name from Herschel to Heinrich. And although his family were totally rabbinic, he’d become a lawyer and he converted. A year later, the mother converted, but he converted Karl. Karl goes to a school, he’s top of the class, could he be anything else? Many of these characters were what we would call . He was brilliant. He was probably bullied at school. He was called “The Moor.” He goes off to university, student days, already a revolutionary, already wanting to change the world, riotous drunkenness. But his next door neighbour to his parents was a family called Westphalen. In fact, he was in love with Jenny von Westphalen. Her father, even though he played chess with Marx and was friendly with the father, didn’t really want him to marry the Jew. Interesting.

Later on, Jenny’s brother became the foreign minister of Prussia. And Marx, by the way, his wife’s visiting card was, “Jenny Marx nee Baroness von Westphalen.” Of course, he becomes part of the international socialist revolutionary. He travels from country to country. 1848, with Engels, writes the Manifesto. Comes to London, he rooms in the house of a lace maker, a Jewish lace maker, in Soho, and of course spends most of his time in the reading room of the British Museum. It’s fascinating. This is the man who changed the world. When I first started teaching Jewish history, never forget, at least a third of the world was communist at that stage, maybe more. And of course, they saw themselves as Marxist.

Oh, I should mention, Moses Hess, this is what he said about him when he first met him. “Dr. Marx, as my idol is called, "is still a very young man. "He will give mediaeval religion "and politics their last blow. "He combines the deepest earnestness "with the most cutting wit. "Imagine Rousseau, Voltaire, Holbach, "Lessing, Heine, and Hegel united in one person. "I say united, not lumped together, "and you have Dr. Marx.” He, of course… He never… Look, the point is he completely rejects his Jewishness. He falls under the spell of Hegel and embarks on his incredible career, but he very much turns against his own background. He begins to equate capitalism with Jews. You know that phrase, “Jewish self-hatred”? I really am going to put it at Marx’s feet. This is something he wrote. He believed in the antisemitic myths concerning the Jews. He wrote a book… He wrote an article in which he says Judaism is capitalism. And he writes this, “The Jew who is without rights "in the smallest German states decides "the fate of Europe.” In the new of 29th of April, 1849, he says, “The Jews of Poland are the dirtiest of all races.” In an article for the New York Daily Tribune in 1850, this is where he vents his spleen against the Jewish capitalists. In a piece entitled “The Russian Low,” he singles out bankers like Rothschild and , who aid absolutist rulers.

And this is what he writes, “Thus, we find behind every tyrant, "they are backed by a Jew.” And he… 1860, when he is in London, he has a venomous attack on Joseph Moses Levy, who was a Baptist Jew who had bought The Telegraph. And this is what he writes, “Levy wants absolutely to be numbered "amongst the Anglo-Saxon race. "At least once a month, "he takes up the cudgels against "the un-English politics of Mr. Disraeli. "For Disraeli, the Asiatic mystery does not derive, "like The Telegraph, "from the Anglo-Saxon race. "But what does it do Levy "to attack Disraeli "and put a why instead of an eye? "For mother nature has written his pedigree "in absurd block letters "in the middle of his face.” That is a really, really nasty… I’m going to read that to you again. “Levy wants absolutely to be numbered "amongst the Anglo-Saxon race. "At least once a month, "he takes up the cudgels against "the un-English politics of Mr. Disraeli. "For Disraeli, the Asiatic mystery,” which is Disraeli, “does not derive, like The Telegraph, "from the Anglo-Saxon race. "But what does it do Levy to attack Disraeli "and put a why for an eye? "For Mother Nature has written his pedigree "in absurd block letters "in the middle of his faith.” Ferdinand Lassalle, who I’m going to talk about tomorrow, another Jew, and really the other creator of communism in Germany, he called him “Baron Itzi,” and I’m going to use a terribly pejorative term, but it was the term that Marx used, he called him a “Jewish nigger.” “Apropos Lassalle , "as his greatest work on Egypt, "has proved that the exodus of the Jews "from Egypt was nothing but the history "which Manetho narrates "as the expulsion of the leprous people.”

And that is what… So he’s accusing Lassalle of being leprous. Now, in fact, Manetho was… He wrote some very anti-Jewish diatribes. And this is also on Lassalle. “The union of the Jew and German "on a negro base was bound "to produce an extraordinary hybrid.” Ironically, Engels, who’s got such a better press, also writes about Lassalle. Engels was not Jewish. “"He is a real Jew from the Slav frontier "and he has always been willing "to exploit party affairs for private purposes. "It is revolting to see how "he’s always trying to push his way "into the aristocratic world. "He’s a greasy Jew disguised "under brilliantine and flashy jewels.” That was a letter between Marx and Disraeli. Now, it’s interesting, Heine and Hess had shed their Judeophobia. Karl Marks never did. Now, I just want to… I’m only dwelling a little on his Jewishness because I think, as I said, there is absolutely no point in spending time on Marx and his programme. When his wife died, again, the Jewish issue raised its head because his son-in-law, in Paris, wrote an article. When Marx died, he was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

13 people attended his funeral. And isn’t it fascinating, the man who changed the world? He wrote an article and he actually mentioned that Jenny’s family didn’t want Marx, the Jew. And Marx, he never spoke to this son-in-law again as long as he lived. And it was left unfortunate… It was left… His daughter, Eleanor… Eleanor Marx was far more sympathetic and she got involved with Jewish working women in the East End. So basically, Karl Marx, another incredibly important individual… This is what… I’m going to give the last word to the great Isaiah Berlin. “A grim and poverty-stricken pamphleteer, "a bitter, lonely, fanatical exile, "hurling implications against the rich and powerful, "a remorseless plotter preparing "the doom of the accursed class "of exploiters and enemies of the workers, "a single minded and solitary worker "in the British Museum, "who, with his pen, "has caused a greater transformation in the world "than the heads of states "and soldiers and men of action.”

So… So what can I say about these characters? They have completely different responses to their Jewishness. And with Marx, it led such a terrible sore, and also paved the way for a very nasty trend in socialism, anti-Judaism, which I have talked about, and no doubt will talk about again. So I think I will stop here. And Wendy and Judy, I apologise, I have far too much material and it’s so important. So I think this week, with your agreement, I will spend my next two sessions still dealing with Germany. Is that all right?

• You make me laugh, “with my agreement.” Yes, let’s have a look.

• You keep on saying to me, Wendy, “slower, slower, slower.”

• It’s much… You know what? It’s much more beneficial for us not to go like a bullet train because then, A, we can retain the information, number one, and number two, I love the stories because it brings it to life. And one has an emotional connection, so that… Once one has an emotional connection, one retains a memory. Otherwise, it’s just a lot of information.

• So I apologise, , I’m changing the schedule. It’s already gone out. So I’m teaching Germany–

• No need… No need to apologise.

• Thank you.

• [Wendy] That’s the beauty of a very small faculty.

• Anyway, should we see about questions?

• And I just want to say to all our participants, please no rude emails because we are changing the curriculum.

• Okay.

• That’s our prero… That is our prerogative. Just to the participants, please refrain yourself, and yeah, put a stop on the impulse.

Q&A and Comments:

• I promise we will look at Vienna, but that’s such a big subject in itself, and I just feel that there are so many marvellous characters that we have to look at, and I just feel that they deserve time.

Oh, this is… You’re getting a lot of mazel tovs, Wendy.

And Anna’s saying, “I love listening to us chatting "at the beginning of the programme. "It feels Hainish.”

Now, Margie , I had this from Leo yesterday, “Please don’t forget the importance "of German modern Orthodox.” Now I promise you, there will be a session on reform and orthodoxy, but not given by me. There are people who know more, and I would prefer… And I would prefer very much that someone else gives that lecture. So I’m not dodging it, I’m just saying that I want it given by someone else.

Q: “What were the events in Judaism that occurred that gave the Jews the pride to stay Jews from the 1900s till today?”

A: A lot of them stayed because of religiosity, particularly in Eastern Europe. Look, the rule seems to be when the outside world is seductive, if you haven’t had a proper Jewish education religiously, you are going to flop straight into it. It’s how do we walk the tightrope? That’s the question, it’s still with us. And of course, you’ve got to remember two extraordinary events. One, the most horrific, the Shoah, and then the establishment of the state of Israel. It’s incalculable, the impact of those events.

Q: “Trudy, would you kindly consider revising ”‘Can you be a Jew at home and a man in society’?

A: “That implies a Jew is not a man "or acceptable human being.” I use that phrase because that is the phrase that’s so… Is often used. But yes, I think a full citizen, a full citizen, in society, yeah, that’s good.

Josie, that is a very profound question, it would take an hour.

Q: “How do you see Heine incorporating Spinoza’s…”

A: Yes, Heine is the perfect non-Jewish Jew, as is Spinoza, but they still take the Jewish tradition.

This is from Arlene. “I too had a red bendera ribbon "as a baby and a toddler.” It’s Bendle.

An Ellie Strauss says “it’s actually beindel.”

Oh, this is from Francis. “When my daughter was born in 1975, "my Polish-born mother bought "a Fisher Price red apple musical toy for her crib. "I had no idea until she explained about the red.”

Yes, this is from Margie. “Rabbi Levy, Jonathan Saxon, "Chimen Abramsky set up a young Jewish Leadership Institute "at Lauderdale Road. "It was one of the first places set for students "who had university background "and wanted to understand Judaism and history "in modern intellectual setting.” Yes, of course, but not until the 1980s, that’s what I was saying. “Bismarck was an admirer of Disraeli. "Could he describe him as a friend?” Yes, if you read Alexander Richie’s books, there’s a huge correspondence between the two, and there were three portraits on Bismarck’s desk. One of his wife, one of the Kaiser, and one of Disraeli. That’s interesting, isn’t it?

“Please spell Hess.” H-E-S-S.

This is from Tess, she can’t understand why any viewers would make rude comments.

Q: “Is it not curious that Yiddish, "a German Hebrew dialect, "was the vernacular language "of Eastern European Jews "but not of German Jews?”

A: Well, it was the vernacular in the ghetto. It was in the ghetto.

Ray wants to re-listen to the lecture. Once, the website is up, you’ll be able to get any of the lectures.

“Can you remind us of your point "about the rabbi’s disallowing… "Disaster ?”

No, it wasn’t about secular education, Ronnie, and I’m not saying this is… It’s some historians believe that what happened after the destruction of the second temple, that the whole notion of Messianism and revolt was pushed out because how are we going to survive? Look, the Jews revolted against Rome. They’ve held up… They were unbelievably brave for two years, but they were destroyed. It led to this destroying of the Jewish national sovereignty. So some historians read it that way. Yes, yes. Stern did not convert. He didn’t have to by then and he didn’t want to. So you didn’t just… There were certain periods when you had to, other periods when you didn’t.

“Did I hear this correctly?” When Russia was still communist and when China is communist, just think about it, about a third of the world was communist. I’m talking about the populations.

Q: “Why was Marx so antisemitic?”

A: I think he suffered from the name… That terrible disease: Jewish self-hatred. A lot of people… I’ve met people like that. You can see that in many groups who are persecuted, particularly if they don’t get the benefit of the group. Why should they have all the pain when they get none of the benefit? And they turn against their own group.

Joanne Gilbert, “Isaiah Berlin.”

Thanks, Audrey. Thank you, Paul.

Q: “Who is the author of the book "The History of Berlin”?“

A: Alexander Richie.

Q: "Do I have a comment on Jewish migration "from Breslau to Berlin in the 19th century?”

A: Breslau is a fascinating city. Remember, it was near the… It was on the borderlands between Poland, and there was a tremendous migration. Breslau had an incredible intellectual life. Some of the most important characters that I’ll be talking about came from Breslau.

“Marx said "religion is the opium of the people.”“ Sure, he hated religion. He believed religion was a drug used by the ruling classes to keep the people down.

Oh, this is lovely. "My late wife wore a , "a red band, each time she was pregnant, "a leftover from her parents.” That’s adorable.

Q: Wait a minute, this is from Thibaut. “Is the anti-Judaism of Marx still valid "these days in far left liberal socialist circles, "and has something to do "with the so-called anti-Zionist curtain "over the global rise of antisemitism?”

A: Thibaut, that’s an incredibly important question and I couldn’t possibly answer it properly in a short time. I will be lecturing on this. It’s very important. The left… Look… No, I’m not even going to try and answer it. It’s much too complicated.

Robert Wistrich book… Let me just turn around and look at the title. “From Ambivalence To Betrayal: The Left in Israel.” It’s his last great work, it’s superb, and he covers this whole area. Jonathan Sack said, “If you want to divide up anti-Judaism, "first they hated our religion, "then they hated our race, "then they hated our nation.” Look, anti-Zionism is certainly… On the left is certainly tied up with all these kinds of feelings.

Q: Thank you, Adrian. “Who is the author of "The History of Berlin”?“ Alexander Richie. "How and when were Jews regarded "as a race rather than religion in Germany?”

A: It’s beginning at the period I’m talking about, and I am… I will be discussing this tomorrow.

Thank you, Thibaut.

And this is from Caroline, “I’m so thankful that my family managed "to walk the tightrope "and remain actively Jewish "after leaving Germany, "but still remaining culturally German.” Yeah, of course many did. Look, I’m looking at acute cases.

This is from Peter, “The love of German Jews for Germany. "Our father, a refugee from Germany cried, "when he heard the city and German towns being bombed "by the Allies while he was in Glasgow.” Look, also, there were a lot of decent Germans too. It was not inevitable. We have to be careful. “In Highgate…”

This is from Jonathan, “In Highgate Cemetery, "true believers put red roses on Marx’s grave. "Very cultish and secular religion.” Oh yeah, Marxism is a religion, isn’t it? And this is Ellie. “"The Pity Of It All” is waiting “for me at the library.” It’s brilliant!

Q: “How did Yiddish develop from German?”

A: Oh, that’s a very long question, Georgina. We’ll get to it.

“History of Berlin” is the name of Alexander Richie’s book. “Trudy, will I be speaking "about Viennese Jews on Thursday?” No, Irene, but I will after Yontif. They deserve at least three sessions.

And this is Denna giving her comments on Yiddish. I’m going to bring in a… At some stage, I think we should bring someone in to look at one of the languages of the Jews.

Yes, this is from Abigail. “The independence of the Shtetl organisation "through Eastern Europe enabled "a greater identification with religious life.” Yes, of course. And look, over the border in Poland, and now mainly under the Russian Empire, the Jews are not going to be… They’re not going to be troubled by these kind of thoughts. You see, it’s only when you think the outside world is worth having. And you can imagine how dazzling it must have been. Look, if you’ve had a Jewish education, or a dream of an education, and all of a sudden… Look, I’m going to say something… I don’t know. Yeah, this is what I do believe. When the Jews were walled up in the ghettos, they were pretty sure their culture was supreme. Once they emerged, it could appear that the outside world had gone… Had passed them by if they no longer had the strength of Judaism.

Yes, this is from Ellie. “‘Breslov’ in Yiddish. "There’s a whole Hasidic set named "from that city.” Ah, this is from Adrian. “The red thread comes from the Bible "to distinguish between the two sons, "Esau and Jacob.”

Thank you, Adrian. And I think that’s it actually. Okay, and I believe we have another lecture in three quarters of an hour, am I correct?

• [Wendy] We do.

• try, haven’t we?

• [Wendy] You do, you do. Thank you. Thanks, Trude.

• All right, Wendy. Lots of love.

• [Wendy] Excellent. Again, thanks, brilliant. Take care, thanks. Bye-bye, bye-bye everybody. Thanks for joining us, bye.